Chapter 13 - The Grandmother's SecretDavid chased her through the tunnel.
“Stop!”
She didn't.
The tunnel ended at an old stone chapel beneath the mansion.
The woman stood beside the altar.
She looked older now, but powerful.
Evelyn reached the chapel behind David.
“Mother.”
The woman smiled.
“Hello, Evelyn.”
David turned.
“You are my grandmother?”
She nodded.
“I am Margaret Carrow.”
David stared.
“You've been alive all these years.”
“Yes.”
“You caused all of this.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Margaret looked at Evelyn.
“Your mother.”
David looked at Evelyn.
“She was protecting you.”
“By destroying my family?”
“By keeping it alive.”
Margaret opened the pendant.
Inside was the original trust document.
She placed it on the altar.
“The trust was never intended for one child.”
David stepped closer.
“What?”
“It requires two heirs.”
David looked toward the tunnel.
“Benjamin and Lily.”
Margaret nodded.
“Together.”
“Then why separate them?”
“Because one person wanted the entire inheritance.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at David.
“You.”
David's face went pale.
“What?”
“Your father created evidence suggesting you had murdered him.”
“I was a child.”
“Exactly.”
She opened a hidden compartment beneath the altar.
Inside were newspaper clippings.
Medical reports.
Court documents.
Photographs.
David saw his own face on the documents.
The accusation was that he had been responsible for his father's disappearance.
But the dates were wrong.
Someone had built a false timeline.
Margaret explained.
“Your father planned to frame you.”
“Why?”
“To make Michael's daughter the sole heir.”
David looked toward the girl.
“She didn't know?”
“She was a child.”
The girl stepped into the chapel.
“Did my father really die protecting me?”
Margaret nodded.
“Yes.”
She looked at Benjamin.
“And your uncle.”
Benjamin looked confused.
“My uncle?”
“Arthur.”
David turned.
“You said Arthur was your grandfather.”
“He was.”
Margaret lowered her gaze.
“Arthur is not dead.”
David looked toward the tunnel.
“He has been manipulating us.”
Margaret nodded.
“He believes only he can protect the heirs.”
A gunshot exploded.
Margaret fell.
David caught her.
Blood stained his hands.
“Grandma!”
Margaret whispered.
“Don't trust…”
She stopped.
David leaned closer.
“Don't trust who?”
Margaret's eyes widened.
“He's already inside.”
David turned.
Security officers filled the chapel.
One of them stepped forward.
Then David noticed something.
The officer's badge.
It belonged to the same security chief who had served Blackthorn for twenty years.
The man raised his weapon.
David shoved the children behind the altar.
Gunfire erupted.
Stone shattered.
Evelyn screamed.
Karen crawled toward the children.
David fired back.
The security chief staggered.
Then smiled.
“You still don't see it.”
“What?”
He laughed.
“Your family isn't the prison.”
He pointed at the children.
“They are.”
The chapel doors slammed shut.
Gas began pouring through the vents.
David grabbed Lily.
Evelyn grabbed Benjamin.
Karen pulled the emergency lever.
Nothing happened.
The gas thickened.
David coughed.
The children cried.
Then the security chief whispered through the smoke:
May you like
“Welcome home, heirs.”
Everything went black.
